The present invention is directed to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus and more specifically flexible conformally fitted radio frequency (RF) coils.
Flexible coils as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,791,372 and PCT International Application 8701199 are used to match the shape of the coil to various specimens or sized human patients. The nature of the flexible coil makes it possible to uniformly fill the coil with the specimen in an optimal manner.
For samples of a geometry which does not easily conform to the shape of a generalized cylinder (i.e. one having a non-circular cross-section), it is difficult to achieve optimal filling of the coil by the specimen.